A FORMER Fathers for Justice campaigner last night said he may sue police after his GBH trial dramatically collapsed.

Christopher James Coutanche, of Edinburgh Road, Wrexham, was accused of deliberately driving at a group of people as they walked along a Wrexham pavement late last year.

But after the police investigation was called into question the prosecution yesterday decided to offer no further evidence.

And judge John Rogers QC instructed the Mold Crown Court jury to return not guilty verdicts on all charges.

Coutanche, 43, was then released from custody for the first time in 11 months.

Just two weeks ago he was cleared of raping a New Zealand woman 17 years ago in London.DNA evidence showed he had sex with the woman but the jury agreed it was consensual.

Coutanche was held in custody for this week’s trial where he faced charges of GBH with intent, an alternative GBH charge, assault and dangerous driving.

In a statement issued through his solicitor, Paul Abraham, Coutanche said North Wales Police should be held to account for the investigation at Wrexham.

"It is my intention to take legal advice on how to address the shortcomings that have been apparent about this case from the outset," he said.

"During the past 11 months I have been held in custody as a result of allegations made against me. This has had a devastating effect on my life and I am immensely relieved that my innocence, which I have protested from the outset, has been recognised.

"This situation could easily have been avoided if the police had undertaken an open- minded and fuller investigation of the evidence.

"For reasons that North Wales Police should be held to account for, no such investigation took place."

Coutanche said his health suffered while he was locked up facing trial.

"Of greater importance, it has preventing me from seeing my young daughter.

"It has only been because of the love I have for my daughter, the support of my friends and my solicitors Abrahams and Co that I have come through this ordeal," he added.

Judge Rogers told the jury they must be sure Coutanche deliberately drove the car at the complainants and in doing so acted dangerously.

It was the prosecution case he drove on the pavement but one witness said the complainants were in the middle of the road playing around.

Coutanche claimed they were in the road and attacked his car with missiles.

"It is not for him to prove that it was an accident. It is up to the prosecution to prove that it was not," said the judge who added the police investigation could have been more thorough.

During the trial the court heard how Coutanche’s former partner, Karen Chidlow, her cousin Emma Wynne and friend George Statham went to the defendant’s home in Edinburgh Road, Wrexham, at 6am on December 31.

They claimed they were attacked when they walked away having got no reply.

Coutanche said bricks and an iron bar were thrown at his car shattering the windscreen.

The prosecution said it was smashed when Mr Statham was knocked up onto the bonnet and thrown into a garden.

The jury heard that the defendant and his former partner Karen Chidlow had a long and acrimonious history over contact with their daughter.